The Grandest Adventure of All
by TDWidow
Summary: Every story has an end, even that of the great Jack Sparrow. But not everyone’s can be a happy ending. SAD FIC! COMPLETE
1. Just Before the Dawn

**AUTHOR'S WARNING!! **This is not a happy fic! In fact, it is a very **SAD** fic! Please don't hate me…*hides from a flame-thrower wielding mob*

**DISCLAIMER** Don't own 'em…wish I did tho, lol

**Spanish Translations**

Aqui = here

Sí = yes

Gracias = thank you

¡Su tiempo está arriba! = Your time's up!

William Turner, respectable blacksmith and husband to the daughter of the Governor of Port Royal, had never expected to end up where he was at that moment. He had visited prisons before, but this prison had more slime and filth than any run by the British.

The British had no influence in Mexico. Will had never been anywhere outside the colonies and as he glanced at the surly guard leading him, he decided that once was more than enough.

The Mexican guard led him deeper through gritty hallways. Flickering torches cast murky orange light on the rough walls. Will shut his ears to the cries of prisoners as best he could. He couldn't believe it had all come to this.

They stopped suddenly before a shadowy, darkened cell. "Aqui?" Will asked.

"Sí," the guard grunted.

"Gracias." The guard shuffled away, coming to a stop at the corner of the corridor.

"Didn't know you spoke Spanish, mate," came an amused voice from the shadows.

"Only a little," Will replied. "How are you?"

The pirate came out of the shadows. "As well as can be expected," he answered indifferently.

"Good Lord, Jack!" Will exclaimed as he immediately noticed a dark bruise on his cheek. "Did the guards do that?"

Jack Sparrow shook his head, beaded hair clinking. He smiled ruefully. "Anamaria. Slapped me first time she came to see me. Didn't even say 'ello. Don't think I really deserved it."

Will had to smile at that. "How is Anamaria?"

Jack shrugged. "She only came to see me once. Seemed a bit upset that I'd gotten meself sentenced ta hang again."

"Well, you do tend to make it a habit."

Jack just grinned. "Wouldn't be much of a pirate without an occasional death threat mate." He turned serious for a moment. "Do ye know where Anamaria is now?"

Will was torn. He and Elizabeth were in fact staying with Anamaria. The dark-skinned woman was devastated by Jack's death sentence, but couldn't bear to leave his side. She had, however, asked Will not to tell Jack she'd stayed.

Jack looked, for the first and only time since Will had first seen him in Brown's shop, completely honest and vulnerable. Will knew how deep Jack's love for Anamaria went. It had rather shocked him when he realized that the eccentric pirate loved a woman so much. All Will could think of was if he had been the one in the cell and did not know Elizabeth's where-abouts.

"She's here Jack," Will admitted reluctantly. "Elizabeth and I are staying with her."

An unidentifiable look flickered in the kohl-rimmed eyes. "So yer dear Miss Swann has come for old Jack's hanging too, aye?" he asked, cheerily changing the subject.

"She's Mrs. Turner now," Will said proudly. He loved his wife more than life itself and still felt ready to die to protect her. He smiled at the memory of hotly telling Jack that so long ago.

Jack watched his old friend knowingly and smiled. "Our dear Elizabeth is in a delicate condition then, aye?"

Taken aback, Will just blinked. Elizabeth had only told him a month ago. "Yes…how did you know?"

"A man has an odd look in 'is eyes when he's ta be a father," Jack said wisely. "Saw the same look in old Bootstrap's eyes when he first found about you."

"You knew my father way back then?"

"Aye."

"That was over 20 years ago! How old are you, Jack?" Will had always been curious about his friend's age.

Jack flashed him a gold-capped smile. "A pirate is ageless, dear William. You ought ta know that by now. Even that mutinous dog Barbossa ne'er knew me real age." He suddenly looked old.

The full weight of what was happening came crashing down. Will couldn't hold it back anymore. "Jack, this is madness! I've sprung you from prison once already! I saved you at the gallows from an entire British garrison! There is no reason for this!"

"Take it easy mate," Jack said softly. "We aren't in Port Royal now. If you try to spring me again, I won't be hanging all by me onsies and you have a family now. So don't do anything stupid, savvy?"

"You're just going to let them kill you," Will said hopelessly.

"Life of a pirate." Jack shrugged indifferently, but shades of true sorrow began to show through his façade.

He placed his left palm against the bars of his cell. A stark white scar stood out even in the dim firelight across his hand. Will looked down at the identical scar on his own left hand. "I've been dead once already, mate," Jack commented. "Can't be any worse than that."

Will clenched his fist around his scar. "I'm so sorry it had to come to this, Jack."

The pirate shook his head. "That's not why I wanted ye to come here." Will looked at his friend, confused. "The Pearl, mate. Yer ta be in charge of what happens to the Pearl."

Will was shocked that Jack would leave his most cherish possession – the ship he cursed himself for – in his hands. "What…what do you want?" he asked.

"When that child o' yourn is born, I want the Pearl to go to him." Jack paused and smiled. "She's pretty much a Turner family heirloom already."

Will wasn't quite sure he heard right. Give the Pearl to his child? "What if…what if it's a girl?" he asked.

Jack just shrugged. "Out o' all the women who've sailed on 'er thus far, not one's been bad luck yet." He grinned. "Despite what Mr. Gibbs might say."

He was serious. Oh God, he was serious. Will couldn't stop tears from forming in his eyes. "I don't know what to say Jack…"

"Don't cry!" commanded the pirate gruffly. "If I see ye cry, I just might cry and that would do me reputation no good, savvy?" He scoffed. "Can ye imagine? Captain Jack Sparrow reduced ta blubberin' idiot." Both men grinned.

"¡Su tiempo está arriba!" the guard suddenly barked from his post. Will glared at him.

"Go mate." Jack stuck his right hand out through the bars. Will grasped it.

"Don't worry about the Pearl, Jack. I won't let anything happen to her. I promise."

"I know. Just be a good husband an' father." Jack grinned. "And keep that bloody Norrington away from my ship!"

Will laughed. "I will. Good-bye Jack." He let the guard lead him out. Jack watched him leave and noticed the sky lightening in the east.


	2. Yo Ho

**AUTHOR'S WARNING!!** THIS IS A VERY SAD FIC! In fact, it is a DEATHFIC. Death = character death. You have been warned! *hides from the mob* There will be a theme song but this is the end of the story.

**DISCLAIMER** I wish I owned them and yet I still don't.

**Spanish Translations**

Presento al preso = Bring out the prisoner

El capitán Jack Sparrow = Captain Jack Sparrow

¿Tiene usted alguna palabras finales? = Do you have any final words?

They couldn't believe it had come to this. Will and Elizabeth stood together on a platform overlooking the gallows. Anamaria stood by Elizabeth's other side. Neither woman bothered to stop or hide the tears on their cheeks.

Early sunlight illuminated the dusty landscape around the Mexican fort. It was almost picturesque. It felt wrong for Jack to die on such a pretty day.

"Presento al preso!" barked the Mexican general.

"What did he say?" Elizabeth whispered. Her voice cracked with her crying.

Her husband squeezed her hand. "Bring out the prisoner," he translated, his voice betraying his own deep sorrow.

Anamaria muffled a sob. Elizabeth broke away from Will to hug the dark-skinned woman. Will's tears fell silently as he watched them lead Jack out and knew there was nothing he could do.

Jack walked cooperatively up to the noose. "El capitán Jack Sparrow," the official said.

Will smiled suddenly. Elizabeth glared at him. "What could you possibly be smiling about?" she asked angrily.

"They called him Captain," Will replied. "Look."

Indeed, Jack was grinning. Will and Elizabeth could not share in his joy, because they knew they would not see that grin again."

"¿Tiene usted alguna palabras finales?"

"Do you have any final words?" Will translated.

Jack nodded. "Anamaria!" he called. She turned at the sound of his voice. "I'm sorry fer all this, love! I truly am. I wish I could've given ye something better than this."

Anamaria could barely speak. "I never wanted anything better!"

Even from where they stood, Will and Elizabeth could see love in the pirate's eyes. It was more than they could bear when he looked at them too.

"Take care o' the little one." Elizabeth's hands automatically went to her stomach. Jack grinned. "I love ye two, I guess." He shrugged as if to say, "Who'd have thought?"

The executioner stepped up the lever. Jack threw his head toward the sky. "Yo ho!" he shouted.

Anamaria turned away and Elizabeth buried her head in Will's shoulder. The loud twang of the rope falling taut cut into their brains. It was over.

Anamaria disappeared back to sea that day. But Will somehow knew that she'd take care of the Pearl and one day would return it to whom it now belonged.

Seven months later, Will and Elizabeth's first child, baptized William, was born. But they called him by his middle name and he was always known as Jack.


End file.
